Cable-car incident adds to list of Hong Kong brand-reputation crises

A mechanical fault—the fourth for the Lantau tourist attraction in six weeks—drew TV news coverage showing passengers who were frightened and chilled, but nonetheless fuming. One outspoken gentleman told the camera, "I will never come back to Hong Kong again".

Although the brand's managers apologized for the fault, the attraction will now be closed for a self-imposed 10-day examination period. And the brand's reputation may fare little better than prior crisis victim Dolce & Gabbana, which waited until 10 days after a protest by an estimated 10,000 angry Hong Kongers before issuing an apology over its ban on photographs by locals at its Canton Road store.

Gregory So Kam-leung, secretary for commerce and economic development of the SAR Government was quoted as saying that Ngong Ping 360's lack of communication with passengers during the incident was unacceptable and insensitive, and told the operator to improve its contingency plans for emergencies and its communication when incidents do occur.

Robyn Joseph, partner at Kreab & Gavin Anderson, called that good advice for any brand facing a PR crisis. In fact, planning and training are the only things that can resolve a crisis, she said. 

A crisis takes place in a compressed time frame, Joseph said, so corporations need teams to successfully implement all the necessary tasks that will mitigate the escalation of the crisis and deal with the damage already caused.

Each member of this team needs to understand his or her individual remit, as well as that of the bigger team. If they have not prepared together, they are forced to prepare while the crisis is taking place, which costs valuable time and inevitably leads to poor decision making.

In a crisis, Joseph advises focus on three things: the damage already caused, the mitigation of any escalation of the crisis, and running the business. She also stresses the importance of communicating directly to all stakeholder groups—not just the media.

Communication of both negative and positive facts should be transparent and consistent so that everyone gets the same message. "Don’t stop communicating," Joseph said. "When the initial crisis has passed, the crisis moves into an issues-management phase. This is where individual stakeholders will need communication specific to their individual needs."

Finally when it is over, learn from it, Joseph advised. Incorporate what was learned in future planning.  "Don’t just exhale and say, I’m glad that’s over.”

In other prominent PR crises last year, ATV was fined HK$300,000 (US$39,000) for mistakenly reporting the death of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin on 6 July. ATV retracted the news on 7 July and issued a public apology.

As reported last April, OMD Hong Kong has apologised for an incident involving the MTR. Local newspapers including Ming Pao Daily and Apple Daily reported that OMD issued a letter to its sales team and MTR on 19 April advising that any MTR advertisements running near any negative news in newspapers should be withdrawn.

Columnists in the mass media consequently criticised MTR and its largest shareholder—the Hong Kong Government—for trespassing on editorial freedom in Hong Kong. OMD Hong Kong issued a press release on the same day to clarify and apologised for the misunderstanding. The press release stressed that MTR never instructed OMD Hong Kong to take any such action on its behalf and that the content of that letter did not reflect the principle of the company.